Circles and Realms (ePub)

A crop circle appears in a corn field on a farm outside of the small Illinois town of Lakeville. The farmer, Jerry, and his wife, Helen, are expecting family members from the Allison clan to show up for a reunion. These include Helen's father and remarried mother, her sister and husband, her older brother Cale (a college professor) and younger brother Paul (a businessman). The family owns an old movie theatre in town which has been used for channeling illegal immigrants by Cale's high school friend Elliot Weiss (who also owns the local electronics store and has been shooting X-rated videos on his own). His wife, Virginia, learns about this and who all has been involved in the scheme and haltingly reports this to Cale. Paul has already been suspicious. Cale also discovers that a woman who might be an exterrestrial or one of the Anunnaki of ancient Sumer (or both) has been with him since he was in high school when he first saw her. He suspects that he is genetically connected to her, but only she knows his fate which she can influence. Soon the town is inundated with weird events: shadowy figures who appear at key events, duplicates of their loved ones who have passed away, and, finally, the loss of the use of their cell phones and computers. Both Paul and Cale are drawn into a version of their future as seen through the realm of the aliens and know who in their family is going to die. Others in town see themselves in unpleasant circumstances from their pasts when they are shown a film (supposedly) about cross circles by the invisible exterrestrials at the theatre, When Cale begins to track down the truth about the occupation of their town, he also reveals to his Helen his resentment of his parents that has existed since his childhood. He also realizes that he has not let go of his past and may be tied to Lakeville if he does not do so,